Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the boldest engineers of the industrial age, building bridges, tunnels, docks, and the Great Western Railway with its wide broad gauge. He designed a run of pioneering ships, including the SS Great Western for regular transatlantic service and the SS Great Britain, the first large ship built of iron and driven by a screw propeller. His work pushed the scale of what engineering could attempt, though some projects, like the atmospheric railway and his huge final ship the Great Eastern, ran into costly trouble. He drove himself hard and died at fifty-three.